There is a silver lining to every snowstorm – getting to know your neighbors both good and bad. With forty inches on my block this week, I’ve learned a lot about my neighbors and, strangely enough, socialism.

My corner of Baltimore seems like a good place to ride out a storm. After all, innumerable cars are plastered with Obama bumper stickers, and windows display signs like “Universal Healthcare Now.” In essence, it’s a very liberal neighborhood in an extremely liberal state. What better neighborhood to be in times of need, right?

The architecture ranges from early 19th to early 20th century row homes, which as a result demands parallel parking. This isn’t a great inconvenience most of the time, but with the snow, it’s an absolute nightmare. First the clouds drop forty inches. Then the city snow plow piles another mountain from the street onto your car.

Successfully liberating the vehicle from its icy prison can take hours. After leaving the spot, anyone can take the laboriously freed space. Restoring regular parking conditions quickly requires everyone chipping in for the common good.

During this street clearing process, my neighbors sorted themselves into four groups:1.The Saint (1% of the neighborhood) – Every couple of blocks resides a truly amazing human being living to serve others. He’s shoveling out his neighbors’ cars, dumping bags of rock salt down the whole street, and passing out shovels like he owns a hardware store.

2.The Good Citizen (15% of the neighborhood) – A caring person doesn’t just shovel enough snow to drive away. He carves out the front and back. After leaving his spot, someone else can parallel park without digging. If everyone did this, normal parking would resume in a day – if not less.

3.The Self-Interested Person (70% of the neighborhood) – This guy doesn’t really care about helping anyone. He carves just enough in the front to get out. The next person must dig before parking.

4.The Malicious Creep (14% of the neighborhood) – Instead of shoveling snow to the curb, the creep stacks snow onto his neighbor’s car. This saves the creep approximately fifteen minutes while adding an hour to his neighbor’s work.

While my neighbors love Obama and universal healthcare, they obviously aren’t such good socialists on their own block. This is no surprise; everyone on earth is an armchair Mother Theresa. We all have noble thoughts at the coffee shop or over beers. But when the snow shovel has to come out, so does the truth.

So let’s face it. Universal healthcare supporters are much like the folks on my street. There are a couple of saints, a few good people, and a large chunk who are either self-interested or just plain selfish. Most support it either because they will benefit directly, or they think the tax burden will not be placed on them.

Just look at this Gallup poll: only 34 percent believe that healthcare reform will personally increase their costs. Gallup also points out that most don’t think healthcare reform will benefit them personally – hence they are supposedly altruistic. But it’s not altruism when only 34 percent believe that they will do the shoveling.

You don’t think this is true? Just look at the Republican Party’s anti-universal healthcare campaign. The GOP hasn’t appealed to morality or fairness, but instead to selfish elements among universal healthcare supporters. The message is that the plan will cost more for everyone and your healthcare will get worse. So far the campaign has worked.

One can speak sweet nothings while pleasantly sitting around a warm fireplace. But in the end, a snowy day and a shovel will always reveal the selfish nature of a socialist underneath. If you want to stay in the loop on what the Obama administration is planning and how to protect yourself – even profit from – the ramifications, give The Casey Report a risk-free try. Never get hoodwinked again because you will see the big trends coming long before they get here. Click here to find out more.

All the best and dont forget to vote on where you think that gold prices are going next.

Got a comment then please add it to this article, all opinions are welcome and appreciated.

For those interested in getting a bit more bang for your buck and adding a touch more excitement to your portfolio, then check out our Options Trading Service please click here.

Reader Comments (28)

Thanks to Gold Prices for allowing the rant of emotions regarding the commentary on Snow-cialism. It was revealing to read the release of so many festering emotions on both sides of this issue. I am writing this one additional comment because the information is so disturbing. Questions have been asked as to why Obama is rushing this Health Care Bill throught while it will not take effect until 2018.Here is a synopsis which is credited to a Constitutional Attorney which leaves a unanswered question: Is it factual and honest, and if so will the challenges be brought to the Courts? If the information is thought to be fallacious, then will someone who has read the entire 2000+ pages and is a Constitutional Attorney respond to the allegations.Here is the text on House Bill 3200: Subject: House Bill 3200 Brace yourself and read every word!

A retired Constitutional lawyer has read the entire proposed healthcare bill. Read his conclusions and pass this on as you wish.. This is stunning!Please take the time to read this and forward it out as you see fit. ThanksThe Truth About the Health Care Bills - Michael Connelly, Ret. Constitutional Attorney

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business, and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats, and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled by the government.

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people, and the businesses they own.

The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with! I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access, by the appointees of the Obama administration, of all of your personal healthcare direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance, or if you have private insurance that is not deemed acceptable to the Health Choices Administrator appointed by Obama, there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a tax instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn't work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much, out the original ten in the Bill of Rights, that are effectively nullified by this law It doesn't stop there though.

The 9th Amendment that provides: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;

The 10th Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.

I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights. Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to "be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution." If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it, without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway, I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.

For those who might doubt the nature of this threat, I suggest they consult the source, the US Constitution, and Bill of Rights. There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us.

Michael Connelly is completely connected to the Health Insurance Industry and the Republican party. These fear based tactics might have worked before, but the American people have fortunately gotten smarter than this, and we now see it for what it is... the status quo desperately trying to stay in old ways that benefit them. There are no lies too crazy for them to use in their smear campaigns. So go ahead and forward this if you like... or better yet, why not "Tweet" it right next to Sarah Palin's "death panel" argument as to why we should have insurance reform. You might find this to be a more intelligent read: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/28/business/la-fi-hiltzik28-2010feb28 OR better yet (for kicks) why not this one: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1968042,00.html

The Emotional arguments of the left never stand up to logic.Name one country in the history of the planet where communism has worked better than freedom? There are none, Michael Moore, wants you to think things are great in Cuba. That is why I am surrounded by millions of Cubans who risked their lives to leave. Not 1 went back. If you want to live in a socialist country ,you are free to move.